Office 365 Outlook, suddenly missing peoble pane from View Ribbon

Guðjón 1

I am having trouble using "Outlook Social connector" on some machines.
The Outlook 2016 Social Connector is enabled in "Com add-ins"
But in the "View" ribbon the "People Pane" is nowhere to be seen?
Also if I reset "All customizations" it does not change change anything.
If I try to customize the ribbon the People Pane is nowhere to be found.
I have tried to Repair office quick or online, it does not change the situation
I tried to use SetupProd_OffScrub but that does not help.
I've tried both 32 and 64 bit Office.
I've also tried to replicate/compare registry settings HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Office/Outlook/SocialConnector

Not all workstations are affected.

Please help, my CEO is not happy at all :)

Regards Gudjon

Paul Harness 1 Reputation point

2021-03-04T13:47:14.99+00:00

There seem to be lots of different threads, all saying the same thing; we all want the people pane to be reinstated in office 365 / 2019 or whatever other versions.
Microsoft; please get to work

1 answer

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,956 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-08-28T03:15:12.393+00:00

Hi @Guðjón ,
What’s the version of your Outlook 365(File>Office account>About Outlook)?

According to my tests, I can reproduce the same issue as you in my Outlook 365(Version 2007 Build 13029. 20344 Click-to-Run). As I know, the People pane feature in Outlook is usually related to the Outlook Social Connector. However, Outlook Social Connector is not available in Outlook for Office 365 or Outlook 2019. So, the People pane feature is no longer unavailable in newer versions of Outlook 365 desktop client.

Not all workstations are affected.

Do you mean that there are other Outlook 365 client which can use the People pane feature normally? If so, what’s the version of those specific Outlook client? To solve your issue, as a workaround, you could try to revert the version of your outlook so that you can use the People pane feature again.

Besides, If you still would like this feature in newer version of Outlook 365 client, you could post your feedback via Outlook UserVoice.

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Please sign in to rate this answer.

1 person found this answer helpful.
Jade Liang-MSFT 9,956 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-01T08:10:28.057+00:00

Does this issue have any upgrades?
If it has been resolved, please click "Accept as answer" to mark useful post or share your solution, your action would benefit others who have similar issues.
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to post back. Thanks!

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,956 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-04T04:57:42.18+00:00

Hi @Guðjón ,
Has your issue been solved after so long?
If not, please provide me with more information about your issue for further analysis.Thanks!

Guðjón 1 Reputation point

2020-09-21T10:46:17.317+00:00

Hi

Sorry for the late answer, this is not resolved and a little confusing...
Outlook Social connector 2016 has been working with Office 365 and might I add "Perfectly" last cobble of years.
It only disappeared late last August this year (for some of the workstations it was behaving like "Burt in Soap") but completely disappeared now.

So I am guessing this goodbye to "Outlook Social Connector" then?
Did anyone ever find any similar Add-in for Outlook?
Seems kind of interesting to me to remove this function from Outlook that so many people rely-on!

Regards
Gudjon

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,956 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-09-25T07:26:18.493+00:00

Hi @Guðjón ,

Thanks for your reply.

For now, this feature is indeed not available in Outlook for Office 365 or Outlook 2019 as mentioned above, I have tried to research about it but haven't found any similar add-ins. If you still want to use this feature in the future, it's suggested to vote this idea in Our UserVoice, Microsoft would notice it and may bring this feature back in the future.

Besides, in order to close this thread, please kindly mark useful post to answer, which would benefit others who also have similar issues, Thanks for your understanding.

Ivan Povey 1 Reputation point

2021-07-16T12:13:14.89+00:00

Ruinning Windows 10 with Office 2016, had another ! Windows update yesterday (KB5004237) and now the people pane is missing again, happened before with a previous update. I still have the Social Connector active but there is no where to get the People Pane running. Why do MS keep trying to get rid of this great feature ?

I have unistalled the update but People Pane has not come back.

Windows Version - Windows 10 Pro - Version - 21H1 - OS Build 19043.1083
Office Version - Office 2016 Pro Plus - Version 2106 (Build 14131.20320 Click-to-run
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